


the space for this

by Pretentious_Procrastinator



Series: Bry's Bakoda Fleet Week Fic [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:34:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25609696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pretentious_Procrastinator/pseuds/Pretentious_Procrastinator
Summary: Day 4 - Love LanguagesWhen the wind howls outside and the children are asleep there is no room for words. When in the middle of battle, shouts and weapons clashing all around them, there is no quiet for words. When enemy ships are on the horizon or enemy guards are pulling them apart to different prisons there is no time for words.
Relationships: Bato/Hakoda (Avatar)
Series: Bry's Bakoda Fleet Week Fic [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1851220
Comments: 1
Kudos: 24
Collections: Bakoda Fleet Week 2020





	the space for this

**Author's Note:**

> Day 4 of [Bakoda Fleet Week](https://bakodafleetweek.tumblr.com/) \- Love Languages.

When the wind howls outside and the children are asleep there is no room for words. When in the middle of battle, shouts and weapons clashing all around them, there is no quiet for words. When enemy ships are on the horizon or enemy guards are pulling them apart to different prisons there is no time for words. 

But there is room for the press of bodies, huddled together against the cold and just for sheer wanting of it, room for combing each other’s hair and being the one to get up before the children start bickering. After a battle, when things are again quiet, but a heavy type of quiet, one that isn’t broken easily, there is the chance to sit together and swap the favourite part of each others’ meals. Before a battle there is time for diagrams to be sketched quickly, an aid to demonstrate battle plans concocted and explained by one whose skills definitely lie outside the artistic sphere. There is time before they leave their home to ensure an extra long berth is installed on the ship for the one who towers over many other men. And there is time for the brief press of hands, a determined nod, before they are pulled away by helmeted firebenders. 

After the war there is more room – the children are home, they are home, but the rebuilding projects are expanding the village, bigger even than to how they remember it from their early youth. With the numbers of people and the amount of work to be done there is still little quiet available, but they’ve gotten used to going without words anyway. They have more time at least; they are busy, yes, but they are far less likely to be interrupted or pulled away from each other. 

Still, they do not say ‘I love you’. Not often, at least. There is no need to, not when they show each other with every action, not when they have grown used to not saying it – why would they? It doesn’t need saying.

**Author's Note:**

> Title from 'The Space For This' by Cynic, which actually had nothing to do with this fic.
> 
> Can also find this fic on [tumblr](https://thewintermusketeer.tumblr.com/post/625072217279119360/bakoda-fleet-week-day-4-love-languages).


End file.
